EMPLOYMENT IN ETHNIC CATERING

That this House welcomes the major contributions that Chinese, Indian, Malaysian and other ethnic restaurants, curry houses, takeaways and catering businesses make not only to culinary diversity, interest and excitement but also to the economy and British society in general; is concerned about their increasing difficulties in recruiting chefs and cooks of all kinds which have forced many to employ asylum seekers many of whom are now being dismissed or arrested under the Stop Illegal Working drive; feels that these problems are compounded by the new points-based system which requires unreasonably high English language skills at a level not attainable in the schools of their country of origin and formal qualifications not attainable by those who acquire their cooking skills from experience, often in family businesses; points out that all this has produced real difficulties for ethnic catering, excessive overtime hours, tens of thousands of staff shortages and in several cases closures of these small and medium enterprises; and observes that these problems are all brought out in the research report compiled for the Chinese Immigration Concerns Committee which comes to the conclusion that, if Chinese catering cannot quickly replace its workforce there is a real danger of a meltdown, a problem which also faces other ethnic catering businesses unless they are urgently recognised as an area of skill shortage with rules relaxed accordingly to allow urgent recruitment.